Residents of very low rent V.I. Port Authority-owned Estate Bournefield apartments protesting VIPA plans to relocate tenants and demolish substandard apartments may get title to their apartments for free if a bill approved in committee Monday is enacted into law.
In 2010, the authority announced it was going to evict all the residents, giving them four months to find new housing. Residents protested, saying similar moderately priced housing is next to impossible to find on St. Thomas, and the VIPA governing board reconsidered and began working on a more nuanced, gradual approach.
Since then, residents have asked that the apartments be given to them and their past rent payments regarded as payment of principal.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Celestino White, would transfer the property from the V.I. Port Authority to the V.I. Housing Finance Authority, and require VIHFA to sell the 43 housing units for $1 each to their occupants, if they qualify for affordable housing benefits. Remaining units would go first to residents of public housing, then to first-time homeowners.
V.I. Port Authority Governing Board Chairman Robert O’Connor and VIHFA Executive Director Adrienne Williams both testified against the measure before the Housing and Labor Committee. The two said it would open a Pandora’s box of problems, from risking federal funds for the St. Croix airport to requiring the government to spend money it doesn’t have to bring the homes up to legal occupancy standards.
The Bournefield land was deeded to the Port Authority by the Federal Aviation Administration with very restrictive, very detailed covenants, which require that the land be used for airport purposes, and if ever sold, be sold at market prices, O’Connor testified.
"That is the crux of the problem: Efforts to transfer Bournefield to VIHFA or any other entity runs afoul of the very clear intent of the covenants," O’Connor said. "The FAA can only authorize selling if the operator has no need of it for airport operations.”
He added that selling it will result in the almost immediate cutting off of discretionary funding.
The Housing Finance Authority is required by law to provide safe and sanitary housing, so it would have to fix them up to meet occupancy standards before selling them, and there is no money to do so, Williams said. Also, many of the residents do not qualify for housing benefits, she said.
Bournefield apartments rented at $325 for a one-bedroom and $525 for a three-bedroom apartment, which is substantially less than market rates. But the average household income is around $50,000, which is too high to qualify for subsidized rents elsewhere on St. Thomas, she said.
Williams added that qualifying the purchaser, running credit checks and estimating the value of the property will still have to be done, putting a financial burden on VIHFA that it does not have the resources to absorb.
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen disputed that transferring the property would create a problem with the FAA, saying there were residential properties near airports in Puerto Rico, and therefore the FAA title covenants must not be relevant. She also disputed whether VIHFA had to perform credit checks or appraisals.
White pressed O’Connor for documentation that the FAA had severe concerns. O’Connor said he had been seeking a letter for some time from the FAA outlining its position, and had been expecting it to arrive any day now.
Voting to send the bill on for further consideration in the Rules and Judiciary Committee were Hansen, White and Sen. Terrence "Positive" Nelson. Voting nay were Sens. Neville James and Usie Richards. Sens. Louis Hill and Alvin Williams were absent.
The committee also voted to send forward a bill sponsored by Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe and Shawn-Michael Malone that changes details of V.I. law governing apprentice training programs to bring it into compliance with some federal standards.
"We have been very anxious to establish these changes, which would allow us to meet federal standards and move forward with apprenticeship programs," Labor Commissioner Albert Bryan testified, in support of the bill.
"It will provide for a credentialed path toward certification in the trades, where currently we have no established path," Bryan said.
Voting to send the measure on for further consideration were Hansen, Nelson and White. Voting nay were James and Richards. Williams and Hill were absent.
